An Unlikely Event
by Hogwarts730
Summary: It started as a simple hunt gone wrong, but what if friendship sprouted from it? (Tarzan’s childhood up until the end of the movie)
1. Chapter 1: A Hunt Gone Wrong

She saw him through the leaves of the tree just like her mother taught her. She waited for him to move and duck down. Luckily after a moment he did, having reached out to pick up some berries that hung low from a tree across from her.

In that moment she jumped down, quietly, though it seemed the animal sensed her presence because his head was back up again. She dare not move.

Her eyes searched his as he glanced around his surroundings, as weary as an antelope. After another pain staking minute, he turned to pick at the berries once more, soft sounds leaving his lips.

She stalked forward, paw after slow paw, ready to stay still if her prey decided to glance up again. Ten more feet and she would be on the mark to pounce.

 _Now!_ And with that thought and the final place of her paw she pounced at her prey, her mouth open to clench around his throat and give it the final sting before his death.

But she had missed. Or rather he hit her out of the way.

Infuriated, her prey pounded hard against his chest, roaring fiercely.

She hissed and spit at him, getting back up from being knocked over by the nearest tree.

"You are mine!" She lunged at him again after circling ever so slowly around him like she had seen her mother do, to give her prey a false sense of security.

Again the boy hit her away shouting, "Jaguars aren't welcome!"

"What are you going to do about it?" She bit at his knuckles and the ape cub gave a startled cry, he huffed, making noises like "hoo" and "oo" as he retreated to a tree.

She chased him up the tree, watching as he slowly stepped to the edge of the branch. The branch dipped in response to his weight.

Just as she was about to pounce at him again, he grabbed onto one of the vines and she fell to the forest floor, hard on her back. She stayed there, clutching at her rapidly beating heart, she couldn't breathe.

The ape cub spit down at her and lept from vine to vine, farther and farther into the forest.

She _really_ hated monkeys.

 **XXX**

She was back at the spot again the next day and so was the ape cub, apparently feeling confident that she wouldn't try to hunt him again.

He was wrong. She was determined to win whatever this was. She was by a bush, from across from him. His back was facing her, her eyes were fixed upon the steady rise and fall of it.

She stood still for a moment longer, waiting, and just like the day before slowly moved forward one paw after the other. She didn't have sharp claws like her mother, so there wasn't a worry about keep them unsheathed.

She lunged at him her whole body becoming visible now that she left the safety of the bush. Her lungs was cut short however as a full grown gorilla came running out from behind the trees where the ape cub was at.

The mother ape stood protectively in front of her cub, she roared in her face, the mouth as easily as big as the jaguar cub's head. As the ape got slowly closer and closer, she got farther away, just as the mother began to pick up speed to throttle the jaguar cub to death, there was a deafening cry from one of the trees.

A black jaguar leap down, landing right in front of her. It was _her_ mother.

"Keep your cub away from mine." Her mother growled.

"You have crossed the boarder. Our leader will want his pound of flesh." The ape mother spoke. Though they all sound different, animals have a universal language.

"As a mother to a mother, I hope you're not suggesting I kill my cub? She made a simple mistake." The jaguar mother's claws unsheathed at this, ready to fight if need be.

"If It were any of the others, they would. But I see your child is like mine. Different." The ape mother looked at her between the gap in her mother's legs.

"That is none of your concern. I saved her." Her mother retorted.

"As did I. Just make sure she is on that side of the boarder." The ape mother nodded.

"Come Paka," her mother spoke turning around and leaning down so she could climb on her mother's back. She did as she was told.

Her mother began to walk off and as she did so Paka turned to face the ape's.

"Tarzan, what have I told you about the boarder?" The ape mother asked, picking up her cub and easily placing him on her back.

"To not go over here. But the best berries are over here." The son argued.

"You can't come over here. No matter how delicious the berries are."

The boy sighed and Paka lost them in the trees.

 **A: This is the first time I've ever done a Tarzan fic. I hope you're enjoying it and if you are please leave reviews.**

 **-Maddie**


	2. Chapter 2: On Speaking Terms

Paka watched Tarzan from the tree again, now watching with curiosity rather than with the intent to hunt.

Today he was rough housing with another gorilla cub. Every time they called for a new match Tarzan always lost.

A voice, a mother's voice, broke into their rough housing, the furrier of the two sighed and said goodbye, along with something that just sounded like her sighing "Mother's." While rolling her eyes.

Still Paka sat, never thinking of giving her position away; if he knew she was watching him.. That would just be embarrassing.

A bird landed next to her and Paka gave a startled yowl, not expecting it. The bird picked at her fingers, the branch already flimsy, she tried to bat him away but the bird persisted, giving a loud sqwauk.

Paka didn't notice the boy below her froze at the sounds, as he looked up, he knew what was happening. Stealthily, Tarzan began to climb the tree while the girl was distracted; sneeking up behind her, he impersonated an elephant roar.

The girl hissed and spit as she jumped down to the ground. Swiveling her head wildly she spun on the culprit.

"It was you!" She yowled angrily.

"Scared ya huh?" The boy asked unfazed by her yell of fury, jumping down from the branch.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Now what were you doing in my tree?" She hissed, readjusting herself.

"What were you doing spying on me?" He retorted.

"I wasn't spying.. I was hunting!" She spoke unconvincingly, "if I couldn't get you I was going to get your little friend." She added smugly, for good measure.

"If you can't get me there is no way you can get Terkina." He stated dismissively.

"Terkina.. What a strange name.." Paka thought allowed.

"Says you. Paka isn't it?" The boy eyed her.

"I did not come here to be insulted by a monkey so if you please get out of my way so I can catch something, Tarzan." She glared at him coldly as she shouldered past him, further into gorilla territory.

"That's a bad idea." Tarzan sighed, picking at a yellow fruit that hung from one of the bushes.

"And so is being by that bush. There's a snake over there." She gave him a sideways glance and saw him shuffle quickly away.

She kept walking, listening to the sounds of the forest, trying to find something to eat.

"You know, if it's food you want I can take you to some." Tarzan said from behind her, her eye gave a brief twitch of irritation as her eyes snapped open at his voice.

But with the promise of food, Paka's stomach gave a loud growl and she huffed.

"Fine, take me to this food you speak of." She growled, giving into her hunger.

"Just, don't get caught." He said as he ushered her farther into the forest, Paka was crouched low to the ground in the tall bushes.

"I'm going up, just keep up, I don't need you slowing me down." He pointed to up above there heads at the vines that swung slowly in the little breeze they were allowed to catch.

"Please," Paka rolled her eyes as he watched him climb a tree and start swinging on the welcoming vines, "show off." She only picked up her pace, now at a slow trot as he swung from vine to vine.

He had led her to termite mounds, she grimiced. Just because she ate meat doesn't mean she'd be happy with bugs.

"Dig in." He said encouragingly

"Jaguars don't eat bugs." She stated, her nose upturned at the sight.

"Well that's the only meat us gorillas eat." Tarzan shrugged.

"Yes, It is a miracle that your species has lasted this long." Paka rolled her eyes.

Tarzan was about to retort when a swan gave an irate noise of dissatisfaction. It had tried getting a worm out of the ground but missed and had lodged its beak in the wet mud. The beak wasn't lodged for long and the bird went searching for the worm again.

"Watch and learn," Paka indicated Tarzan as her belly was almost to the floor to protect her from being seen. She stepped forward stealthily, moving with ease amongst the tall grass that surrounded the bird.

With a cry and a startled caw, the bird hung motionless in her jaws.

" _This_ is food." She stated simply, plucking the feathers off with her teeth, like she saw mother do.

"Suite yourself. I'll stick with mangos thanks." And with that he jumped into a tree and jumped back down, now accompanied by two juicy mangos.

They ate in silence neither cub knowing what to talk about.

"So do you have any siblings?" She asked him needing to make conversation. She licked the blood off her paws, and wiped them over her face until she was certain she cleaned herself well.

"No.. but I have cousins and aunts. Gorillas travel in family groups." Tarzan explained, "what about you?"

"Just me and mother, for now anyway, she should be having cubs soon."

There was a sudden crash in the nearby trees. Tarzan looked at her with a wild expression on his features.

"You need to go, now!" He said feircly, his eyes full of fear, "if Kerchak sees you, he'll kill you!" He added when Paka didn't move.

At this Paka made a move for the trees, she could run away faster this way. As she ran, she heard the angry roar of an ape, and the startled yelps of Tarzan.

She didn't slow down until she reached the edge of her mother's territory. Paka looked out to the gorilla territory again, her heartbeat fast as she tried to take slow and even breaths.

 **A: I hope you are enjoying this Tarzan fic and if you are please let me know what you are thinking in the reviews!**

 **-Maddie**


	3. Chapter 3: The Life Of A Jaguar

Paka yawned, stretching, she laid back down again.

The holes in the tree leaves of the canopy provided just enough sun rays to warm her back. Her mother was in their cave, a little ways away from Paka's favorite tree, spending a lot of time in there now a days with the cubs so close to being due.

Her peace was disturbed however by the snapping of a twig on the forest floor. With great effort, she ignored it, hoping the sound would go away and she rolled to her side, needing that side of her body to be warmed.

The next thing that made her ears perk was the vibration coming from the trunk of her tree; again Paka ignored it, determined to continue her nap, she rolled to her other side.

"Paka! Come on!" A voice suddenly wined and she felt a hand shove against her shoulder.

"Go away Tarz- Tarzan! You can't be here, if mother smells you, you'll be dead within seconds!" Her voice changed from annoyed to urgent.

"Why?" He gave her a confused look.

"Because she is about to have her cubs soon. Making her more protective!" She explained in the same hurried tone.

"Well do you have any place we could talk?" He asked.

"Well.. yes but you're not supposed to be over here." She stated irritably.

"That didn't stop you from going into gorilla territory." He shot back defiantly.

Paka rolled her eyes, but the ape cub did have a point.

"This way," she sighed.

They hopped from branch to branch, Paka had to stop only once and that was to pick up Tarzan before he almost fell to the ground. They made it to a small secluded watering hole not long after that.

"So what did you want to talk about?" She asked, dipping her paws in the cool water.

"None of the other ape cubs would play with me. So I decided to come to you." The boy shrugged.

"You woke me up from my nap for that? You risked your life to tell me _that?"_ Paka couldn't help her cold tone. Not only were felines like her supposed to get up to at least thirteen hours of sleep, but the boy was just plain out and simple stupid at this point.

"I didn't risk my life!" He exclaimed.

"Savor lives over here you know. The killer of ape cubs." She said darkly.

"The killer of _any_ cub." Tarzan clarified.

There was silence among the two for a moment.

"So what's it like being a jaguar anyway?" He seemed to only ask out of a pure way to pass the time.

"You sleep thirteen hours a day, mainly hunt at night, late afternoon or dawn." Paka sighed, not really knowing what else to say.

"That sounds boring." Tarzan said, dismissively.

"Oh yeah? Well what's it like being a gorilla then?" She questioned, offended.

"Well we travel so that's always exciting. We're a big group so when we groom each other it always takes up most if not all the day. Us kids are allowed to do almost anything as long as we're near the group." He added with a thoughtful expression on his features.

"I would certainly hope so, that many cubs in one place is a disaster waiting to happen." Paka scoffed.

"You'll know what that is like soon," Tarzan snipped.

" No I won't actually," she sighed, now suddenly very sad, "once Mother has her new cubs I'll be cast out."

"What?" He looked very confused.

"Yeah, that's how it works, I will get a section of her territory but that's it." She shrugged.

"Gorillas stay together." Tarzan said flicking at the water with his finger.

"Not everyone can stay in family groups," Paka growled,"Jaguars are lone predators and raise their cubs to be so."

"You could stay with us when the cubs are born then," he suggested.

Paka gave a sad laugh and the conversation had ended.

"Paka darling, where are you?" Her mother's voice intervened on their moment of silence.

"Go!" Paka hissed at Tarzan and the ape cub made a move for the trees, Paka sighed and started walking toward her mother's carrying voice.

"Coming!" And she bounded away from the watering hole.

"What were you off doing?" Her mother asked when she spotted Paka at the entrance to the cave.

"Nothing much just at the watering hole," she sighed, laying down next to her mother, she didn't like lying and avoided it as most she could. But she felt that the more she was hanging out with Tarzan the more different she was already becoming.

"How are you?" Paka asked her mother, she indicated her belly.

"The cubs should be here by tomorrow at the earliest." Her mother said calmly, though she could tell the older jaguar was rather excited.

"I don't want to leave you yet!" Paka cried, they had been over this many times before, but Paka just couldn't get over the loss of the fact that she could never return to this cave, that she would never see her mother again.

"I know, but you need to, I can't have you and new cubs to care for, you are old enough now." Her mother sighed, clearly having enough with the conversation.

"I know, it's just..." Paka trailed off, wiping her tears.

"I will miss you too Paka, don't you ever beileve I won't, you hear me?" Her mother asked, making Paka look in her eyes by bringing her chin up with her paw.

"I hear you," Paka nodded.

"Good, now get some rest child, we will be hunting later tonight." Her mother's head hit the cave ground with a soft thud, evidently tired.

"Yes, Mama." Paka managed, she hadn't called her mother that in so long, it felt strange for the word to leave her lips.

 **A: Don't forget to tell me what you think in the reviews!**

 **-Maddie**


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting Terkina

When Paka woke up that night, the cubs had come in her sleep. As she stretched and yawned her mother suddenly growled next to her and Paka shrank back, scared.

"Mother?" Paka asked with a weak voice, and her mother hissed and spit at her in response.

Her mother never used this tone of voice, nor did she ever not speak to her. Paka quivered, not sure of what to do.

The cubs mewled quietly next to them and Paka started to walk towards them, wanting to know how many of them looked like her mother.

The older jaguar pounced on the younger, her teeth threatening to clench down on her throat, her mother threw her out of the cave with such force that Paka felt a trickle of blood from the top of her head.

She knew why now, why her mother was hissing and spitting and growling heinously at her, it was her way of saying "Get out", Paka walked silently away from the cave, her tears drowned out by the cries of the newborns.

 **XXX**

Paka didn't know where she was when the sun hit the horizon in beautiful soft, and yet still bright, colors.

Was she out of Mother's territory? Possibly, she had been walking all night. Was her mother even awake at this hour? No, she couldn't be, the newborns would have been a lot to handle last night, none of them would be awake now.

"Tarzan! Tarzan! Where are you Tarzan?!" A female voice suddenly called.

Quickly, Paka jumped behind the nearest tree. She was in gorilla territory again! Why the hell does she keep stumbling into this place?!

"Coming Mother!" Paka recognized that voice, that was Tarzan. Her sort-of friend.

The ape mother came into view and Paka nearly shrinked further into herself out of fear. The ape was much larger without her mother around.

There was a pause and then a rustle of leaves near by.

"Where were you?" The mother asked.

"I was just with Terkina over there," Tarzan's voice came again.

"All right, Well me and the other mother's are going to be near here, so don't wander off to far and stick together understand?" His mother sounded very kind. She wished she had a mother like that. Paka's hand went to her head, picking at the dry blood.

"Okay," Tarzan said, his voice sounded far away, he was walking away from his mother.

"Hello!" A sudden cheerful greeting in Paka's ears made her yowl and jump from her adrenaline pumping with a quickening pace in her veins.

It was the ape cub Tarzan was rustling the other day, she straightened up and collected herself.

"Hello?" She asked.

"That was funny, the way you reacted I mean," Terkina chuckled, it coming out almost distorted and broken, if anything it sounded more like a chortle.

"Terkina! Terkina!" It was Tarzan.

"Over here!" Terkina responded and a Paka wanted to run.

She was almost going to take up Tarzan's offer about staying with the apes seeing as she was no longer with a family but she wasn't about to admit it in front of someone she has never met.

"Hey it's you, Paka." She was drawn out of her thoughts abruptly as Tarzan came trotting up to them.

"So this is the girl you've been sneaking off to see?" Terkina asked.

"I haven't been sneaking off to see her,"

"He hasn't been sneaking off to see me," they said at the same time.

"Yeah sure- what's that on your neck?" Terkina's attention was diverted to the large gash on Paka's neck from her mother swinging her out of the cave.

"It's Nothing," she dismissed.

"Come on, there's a lake near here, you can clean yourself," The girl ape walked, expecting to be followed, and she was.

 **XxXx**

Paka slowly walked into the water, not very pleased by the sensation it caused, but seeing as her mother was no longer here to lick her wounds and she can't exactly clean her neck herself, she put up with it.

"So you're a jaguar?" Asked Terkina as she started to bring up her hand to her wound to rinse it.

Paka nodded painfully from the sting.

"What are you doing over here then?" She asked.

"I lost track of where my mother's territory ended," while she was in the water, she also cleaned the dry blood that was left over from being thrown at a rock, from her hair.

"Feeling better?" Terkina acknowledged when Paka left the water.

"Yeah, Thanks."

There was an awkward and palpable pause, and then a fish splashed above the surface of the lake water and Paka's stomach tumbled at the idea of possible food.

"You're hungry," Tarzan chuckled at the sound.

"Take the fish from the lake, we don't eat them anyway," Terkina urged.

Though Paka wasn't pleased with the idea of eating scaley slipery creatures, she allowed herself to stalk up to the water, watching the fish that surfaced earlier, trying to swim into the deep parts of the lake.

She pounced and caught the fish between her jaws. When her head reached above the water, she noticed it was dark and gloomy.

Paka turned back to her new found friends only to see a male apes middle, with a hesitant eye, she looked up further to reach the male's eyes.

He screemed and roared in her face, one of his fangs easily as long as her arm, his fists pounded on either side of her small body.

She shook with fear but remained frozen to the spot, she was transfixed as she watched the ape throw its tantrum.

"Run!" Tarzan yelled from over the apes screeches and grunts.

His voice seemed to bring the life back into her limbs, and clenching harder down on the fish that flopped lazily in her mouth, she bolted.

Under the ape's arm and up the nearest tree, hopping from branch to branch, until she couldn't hear the screems and cries anymore.

 **A: Sorry I haven't posted in a while but here you go, I hope you have enjoyed.**

 **Please leave reviews.**

 **-Maddie**


	5. Chapter 5: Rainy Days

Paka was sitting in a bush as rain poured down and thunder shook the sky. This would be her first storm without her Mother, and she was terrified. With every flash of lightning and clap of thunder she winced and her body shivered in fear.

She thought she heard something from up above her head, but the only thing moving around in the tree was a small baboon, she did not dare try to hunt it. For when there was a baby, especially baboons more then anything, its pack of rabid relatives would be close behind.

Another flash of lightning, Paka's head dropped to the ground even lower, placing her paws over her head as if that would protect her from its burning intensity. She had seen once before what lightning could do to a Jaguar, and she never intended to smell burned fur ever again.

In her haste to protect herself from the storm she had not noticed she was being followed. She had not heard the twig that snapped behind he as thunder rolled and boomed across the sky. She had not smelt the wet fur of an animal. She had not smelt wet Jaguar.

Suddenly, too late, Paka had turned only to be pounced on by something large and spotted, she cried out for her Mother, only to realize that her Mother was not there any more for her, but in fact she was safely in a cave taking care of her new baby cubs, unharmed.

She felt claws rake into her soft skin, she watched as her blood dripped from another animal's claws. She took a shaky breath as the large animal stepped away, to admire the damage it had done to its prey. Paka, very unsteadily, raised her eyes to gaze into her murderer's gaze.

There standing over her and very pleased with herself, was Sabor, the jaguar who was known throughout the forest as _"Killer of Cubs"._ Sabor was every Mother's nightmare when their children run off, the fear Sabor is lurking in the bushes, ready to pounce on their unsuspecting babies.

They were more often right then wrong.

And now it was Paka's turn, chest heaving and bleeding as if it were the bloody version of a waterfall, to die at the claws of Sabor. She whimpered, there was nothing Paka could do up against something like Sabor.

"Tasty morsel you will be!" Sabor hissed.

Just as Paka started to feel the razor sharp teeth of the jaguar on her neck, something big and vast ran full speed through the bushes and trees of the forest. The rhythmic _thumping_ of the animal's foot falls was just as loud as the thunder overhead.

Paka sat very still, covering her head with her arms. The beast behind her, surprisingly was not interested in her, the animal jumped over her head. All she saw was brownish-black fur, and thick muscular arms.

The ape bared its much larger fangs in Sabor's face. The ape's maw could've swallowed the jaguar's face whole. Sabor stood very still for a moment. The ape brought up its hand and before the fist could connect with its target, Sabor scattered into the bushes, hissing and spitting in irritation.

The ape turned around and for a second Paka thought it was Kerchak, she was getting ready to run, but she let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was Tarzan's mother.

"I'm not here to harm you. Come with me, I can heal those wounds." The ape said.

Paka nodded, her voice so stuck in the back of her throat she didn't trust it.

The ape stuck out her hand, Paka took it with her much smaller paw. Very carefully, the ape lifted the young jaguar over her shoulder. Paka smelt the ape's warm fur, and she started to cry.

Tarzan's mother let her cry out her tears in silence, even when she felt the water soak through her coat.

 **A: Hello! I realize it's been a minute since I've updated, and for that I am sorry. I realize, that there are no jaguars in Africa, but I realized it too late after I posted the first chapter and I didn't want it to change out of nowhere, so I am sorry.**

 **Thank you to those who commented! I am glad you are enjoying this story!**

 **-Maddie**


End file.
